As any good teacher will admit that they are always experimenting to try and figure out a better way to do things in the classroom.  Whether it be a time management aspect, teaching style aspect, questioning aspect, or just a different way of teaching the same lesson, teachers are always experimenting.  I'd like to think of myself as on the "edge" of becoming a decent teacher, so I too, look for different ways to try things to help my students out.  In my Algebra 1 class, we start right away in the second semester with solving systems of equations.  As a math geek, this is one of my favorite units because there is so much Algebra that goes into it.  Solving equations, substituting, elimination, finding right answers, etc.  It truly is "math heaven"!  Unfortunately my students don't appreciate the beauty that lies within solving a complex problem like I do.  On top of that, you throw in the fact that Mother Nature hasn't been too cooperative with her weather, and it truly makes this unit a very challenging one for students to understand and have success.
Last year I wasn't flipping the class, so I was very anxious to see how my students would handle their assessments on this unit.  My first assessment that I gave my classes split all the students into 2 groups.  "Kids who got it" and "Kids who didn't get it."  Now most of you are probably thinking to yourself, well duh.  But in this case the amount of kids in both categories, and the range of separation that was caused.  This was really the first time that I had no one in the B- through C- range.  They either got high A's and high B's or D's and F's.  I knew that I had to go back and re-teach/re-evaluate those who didn't get it, but I had to think of a way to structure it so that it could still fit in the framework of my class.  After consulting with Libby, I came up with a re-assessment that was different than anything I have ever done.  I gave students 6 problems, with the answers provided to all 6 problems.  In order to get credit, they had to prove that they could get to the final answer to three questions using any solving method they wanted.  Once they were complete with 3 problems, they had to write out the steps they took to solve the problem.  It could be in bullet form or paragraph form, or anywhere in between.  I wanted them to be able to write and express the steps they took to get their final answer.  Once they were done with all three problems, I took them into the hall and then had them walk me through their steps, without their written explanations.  I then asked questions about the problem, why they did a certain step, what would have happened if they did this, etc.  Once those questions were answered, I asked, "What was the main thing that you were doing wrong on the first test that you are now doing right?"  Based off of the answers that they provided during the one-on-one conference and the work they showed, I graded their re-assessment and averaged it with their first test for their new grade.
I wasn't sure how this would work.  When you detail something out that involves a lot of work, students tend to shy away from attempting it. (Shocking, I know)  After my first consultation, I loved what I heard.  I had students explaining the frustrations that they had prior to the test, but now it had "clicked" and they could do it!  I had one student flat out tell me, "I had no clue what was going on or how we ended up with 2 answers, but now that I actually worked at it and wrote it down, it actually makes sense!"
I used the same type of format for my entire chapter review.  I have students broken into 5 different groups in class, so I gave each group 3 different problems.  They had to solve each problem and then write reminders to themselves of how they solved it.  I dangled the "you will use this on the final test" carrot to get those who hate doing work to fully participate.  We are assessing today, so I will have a better idea next week about how well this may or may not have helped, but I hope to do something similar the rest of the year as well as in years to come.

As I have mentioned before, I am not the "expert" flipper...Nor do I know a lot about flipping.  However, I have learned a lot from my flipping family and they have made my transition from elementary to secondary so much easier!

Flipping is a great tool I use in my high school classroom for "intimidating" topics.  I teach a class similar to Second Chance Reading where "word work" is important and necessary. The readers I have often need the instruction yet don't want to hear it.  So I was faced with this question: How do I teach the students what they need, yet ensure they absorb and meet our learning goals? FLIPPING!

I have created several videos for the word work (or Bridging Strategy, as we call it, adapted from Fusion Reading Program) portion of my lessons.

Often a Bridging lesson will look like this: 
-Student views the video independently and take notes (watching twice almost always happens)
-Student completes activity, often found at the end of the video, independently or with partner (student choice)
-Teacher checks notes and activity 
-Whole group activity next day over lesson topic 

I know this is not how everyone uses the flipped learning in their classrooms but this is how I use it and have found it to be most successful.  The students like being "in charge" of their learning and are not as resistant to the topics as they might be through whole group instruction.

Here is my website, which hosts most of my videos. Please feel free to watch them!
http://kerianreads.weebly.com/bridging-strategy.html